Preterm Birth Post-doctoral Fellowship Program

TheUCSF Preterm Birth Initiative (PTBi) is a multi-year, transdisciplinary and multi-sector research effort aimed at reducing the burden of prematurity. Funded by Marc and Lynne Benioff and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the PTBi applies scientific, clinical, and community expertise to address prematurity, the leading cause of childhood death worldwide. We have two parallel arms that are geographically focused in California and East Africa. In California, our goals are to decrease the incidence of preterm birth, which disproportionally affects African American women of all socioeconomic backgrounds and poor women of all races/ethnicities, and to improve outcomes for babies born preterm. In East Africa, we aim to reduce neonatal mortality among preterm infants by improving quality of care during the antenatal, intrapartum and immediate postnatal periods in select regions of Western Kenya, Eastern Uganda, and Rwanda.

Strengthening communication, collaboration and capacity building (“C3”) within the maternal and newborn health community is one of the major goals of the PTBi. Under this C3 aim, we offer a two-year, non-accredited transdisciplinary post-doctoral fellowship focused on prematurity. Our inaugural cohort of six fellows started in July 2015 and brings together discovery and implementation interests that span psychosocial risk factors during pregnancy, quality of care from the provider and patient perspectives, and neurodevelopmental outcomes of preterm infants. This fellowship is an extraordinary opportunity to work with world-class researchers and mentors, develop ideas and partnerships within a collaborative network, present works in progress and final results in domestic and global symposia, and formally build additional research skills. We are thrilled to invite applications for the 2017-2019 class!